Mother's Chronicles - Book Three

25

Hohlenberg

And what was Mirra doing in France?

To begin with, she attended all sorts of 'spiritual meetings,' and met many people. One of them was Alexandra David-Neel, who became famous for her Tibetan exploits afterwards. We shall come to her later.

Mirra also wrote articles for the group 'Idea,' and she taught some of its members how to consciously go out of their bodies.

"I knew somebody in France who used to come and see me every evening so that I might show him some unknown realm or take him for a ramble in the vital or the mental world, and I would in fact take him there," said Mother. "At times there were other people also, at times the person was alone. I showed him how to go out of the body, how to get back, how to keep consciousness, etc. I would show him places,

telling him, 'There you must take this precaution, here you must do such and such a thing.' And this continued for a long time."

We are not sure whether Mother referred to the same person when she cited someone's out-of-body experience. "A friend of mine," she said, "who was in the habit of going out in his vital body, complained one day that he found himself face to face with a gigantic tiger every time, which made him pass dreadful nights. I told him to drive away all fear and walk straight towards the beast while looking it right in the face; and, of course, if necessary, to call for help. That's what he did and, behold, the tiger suddenly began to grow smaller till it became an insignificant cat."

Satprem requested Mother, "You speak of exteriorization, couldn't you show me a simple way of learning to do it?"

Mother refused. "You can't do it on your own, it's dangerous. I would never let anyone who hadn't the knowledge do it on his own. If spontaneous, it comes from previous existences, so there's an old habit. But it's a bit risky all the same, someone should always be there to keep a watch over your body. As

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for teaching it to someone offhand —no."

She then explained the reason for her refusal. "I did try it once in France, with Hohlenberg." He was a Danish artist. "He came to France and asked me. He absolutely insisted. He had read all of Théon's stuff and was well up on everything, and very earnest about it. So I taught him how to do it, and what's more I was there, he did it in my presence. And, my child, the moment he went out of his body, he was thrown into such a panic! The man was no coward —he was very courageous —but it terrified him so! Sheer panic. ... So I said, 'no, no, no.'"

Johannes Hohlenberg came to Pondicherry during the First World War. While he was there, he took a photograph of Sri Aurobindo in standing profile, looking towards the future, and also did a portrait of him. Sri Aurobindo, who never forgot anybody, once said, "In 1914 when the Mother came here, there came also a Danish painter who did a sketch of me. At the end of every meditation, he used to say, 'Let us now talk of the Ineffable'!"

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Mirra met Hohlenberg's mother also. She was a Protestant. Once she happened to be in Paris. "I had her for dinner one day. Well-well, if only you had seen that woman!" Mother said to Satprem. "I don't now recall how the talk turned to the Catholics, and she flew into such a rage! She shouted, 'And those idolaters! . . .' It was frightful," Mother laughed outright.

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Talking of Hohlenberg brings us to some of Mirra's adventures in his company.

She was always ready for an adventure, be it inner or outer. The more challenging the activity, the greater her enthusiasm. So when one day some friends mooted the idea of a trekking expedition, she readily agreed to join them and make a foursome.

Mother said to Satprem in 1969, "Just fancy! A memory came to me . . . from the beginning of the century. I don't know why, and it won't go away. And as it won't go away, I'll recount it to you —there's perhaps a reason, but I don't at all know it."

She explained. "These things from the past . . .

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it's rather odd —now, when they come and I tell them, they are erased. As if they were returning one last time to say goodbye before leaving for good.

"All these 'memories'— actually they are pictures rather —seem to be coming forward to show themselves with all the knowledge, truth and HELP they represent."

She was silent for a few moments, no doubt reviewing the episode. "Four of us went on an excursion from," she began, "I forget from which place on the banks of the Rhone —I don't recall the place anymore —to go to Geneva, crossing the mountains on foot. That meant about eight to ten days of hiking across the mountains. We were four —two men, two women. Each, of course, carried his own bag on his back, because one does need a few things. But when you are obliged to carry baggage for kilometres on end —forty to fifty kilometres each day —you try to reduce the weight of your knapsack as much as you can. So then, before setting off, we held a sort of little conference to find out exactly the things we needed, absolutely indispensable things. And always we ended up by saying, 'Let's see, this can

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be managed this way,' and everything got reduced to so little."

Mother then came to Johannes Hohlenberg. "I knew a Danish artist —he came here, by the way, and did a portrait of Sri Aurobindo. This Danish artist was practising yoga. He said, 'Oh, for my part, I think I can do without anything. I really think that one can reduce one's needs to a bare minimum. But, all the same, I need a toothbrush. I, you see, when I travel I need just one thing: a toothbrush.' But somebody answered him back, 'But no! If you have no brush, you simply rub with your fingers!'" Mother remarked, "At that time I hadn't yet lived in India, otherwise I would have told him, 'There are millions of people who never had a toothbrush but whose teeth are perfectly clean.'" She observed, "I think that, in the final analysis, we need very few things. Another person said, 'A piece of soap.' Generally the need revolves around these simple little things. Yet how many people here, in India, have never used soap, and that hasn't prevented them from being clean! There are other ways of being clean."

No matter how trivial it may seem on the surface,

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Mother never lost an opportunity to blast the myth of such life patterns. The sense of what is indispensable or not, she said, "is the result of a certain education and a life in a certain milieu."

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